Recently, local area networks (LANs) connecting computers are widely used. Such local area networks can be constructed on a floor of a building or in an entire building, across buildings (in premises), in a local area, or in a larger area. These networks are further connected to form a worldwide network, the so-called “Internet”.
Computer peripheral devices such as printers and facsimile apparatuses are often connected to LANs and the Internet in addition to computers. These computer peripheral devices can be used from computers via networks.
Computer peripheral devices are generally fewer than computers or users using computers and shared by a plurality of computers or users.
A document formed on a certain computer of a network is usually transferred to another person by one of the following two means:
A sender prints out the document and transfers or mails the printed product to another person.
A sender transfers an electronic file (document file) of the formed document to a recipient, or transfers a medium storing the electronic file to the recipient, and asks the recipient to output the document.
Unfortunately, the former means is lacking instantaneousness, and sending the output result generally requires high cost.
The latter means has the problem that the application used to form the document file must be installed in the destination apparatus.
To solve the above problems, it is possible to transmit or output data to a printer or facsimile apparatus near the recipient and informs the recipient by telephone or the like. However, this means still has the following problems:
Since the computer peripheral device outputs the data regardless of the condition of the recipient, the output result may be seen by a person other than the recipient. This makes the means lacking in secrecy.
Likewise, since the computer peripheral device outputs the data regardless of the condition of the recipient, many output sheets build up on an output tray of the computer peripheral device.